Investigating the Relationship of Saying Prayers with Depression and Students' Type of Identity Style

 Considering the many stress-causing factors in medical students’ working environment and the destructive effects of depression and lack of identity on their personal and work life, and given the profound effects of religious practices and, most importantly, prayers on the mental health of the students and the importance of considering the paradoxical issues in this regard, the researchers decided to design and carry out this study with the aim of determining the relationship of prayers with depression and the type of identity styles of the students of Kashmar University of Medical Sciences.

 In this cross-sectional descriptive-correlational study, 129 students of Kashmar Health Education Complex, who met the inclusion criteria, were included in this study in 2018. The method of data collection was completed by explaining the research objectives, a demographic information questionnaire, Student Depression Questionnaire (USDI) and Identity Styles Questionnaire (ISI-6G) by the person under study. Data were analyzed by relevant statistical tests. Descriptive statistics and correlation coefficient were used for data analysis. In this study, all the ethical considerations were observed and the authors declared no conflict of interest.

 According to the results, the mean score related to depression was 63.18±26.99. The highest score in the identity styles was in the items related to the informative and normative identity styles with the scores of 40.55±6.0 and 33.22±5.24, respectively. There was a significant relationship between the variables of saying prayers, the obligation to say prayers and participating in congregation prayers and the degree of depression and normative identity style of the students; the students who were saying their prayers had a lower level of depression and had a high level of identity. Also, the students who participated in congregation prayers on a regular bais received the lowest level of depression and the highest informative, normative, avoidance and commitment Items of identity.

 According to the results, based on the relationship between prayers and depression and identity styles of students, it is possible to promote the level of identity and reduce the level of depression of students by taking effective policies in creating the culture of saying prayers in universities.